When is combining prayers permissible? Does light rain permit combining? If I were the imam, how would I know when to combine? Is the intention to combine obligatory before the prayer?

The questioner: Completing the question regarding combining prayers on rainy days: when is combining permissible?

The Shaykh: It is the question—may Allah bless you—it was about the rain.

The questioner: When is combining permissible? I said there is scholarly disagreement, and I do not know when it is permissible.

Another questioner : ... .

The questioner: When is combining permissible at the call to Maghrib prayer? Does light rain mean that combining is permissible in the rain?

The Shaykh : ... ؟

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh: All right; the answer is: if the rain is heavy enough to hinder the usual movement and the affairs of the people, then in this case it is prescribed or a dispensation is granted for combining. Determining or defining this situation cannot be done by every individual Muslim; rather, it falls to the imam who combines or separates. If it were assumed that this imam was lenient such that the ground became wet by the rain, and especially in some hot countries it gets wet here and evaporates there, then there is no blame in that, nor does it necessitate a dispensation for combining. Nevertheless, I want to say: if the imam combines due to the falling of rain, he should be followed in that; because calculating and scrutinizing the type of rain is a matter that is not... for all people first, and then it is not a matter in which opinions can agree. There is a hadith that, if it were authentic, would be the answer and the decisive point on the subject, but it is in the Sahih... it is not authentic; therefore we said that the matter involves some research and independent legal reasoning, and opinions may differ on it. That hadith is the one that says: .
The mere fact that some rain has fallen on the ground, this falling grants a dispensation for a person not to make the effort to go out to the mosque. Accordingly, if rain has fallen and people are praying, for example, the Zuhr prayer, they can combine the 'Asr prayer with it, or if they are praying the Maghrib prayer, they can combine the 'Isha' prayer with it. The mere falling and descending of rain. As for having a precise measure for the ratio of rain, or its quantity, density, and heaviness, we have no explicit text that details this matter for us. So the ruling is the evaluation of the imam, and the imam is supposed to have jurisprudence, and he is the one who determines whether now... we grant a dispensation for combining or not. This is what can be mentioned on this occasion; otherwise, there is no explicit text specifying the answer to the question mentioned.

The questioner: If I were the imam, how would I know when to combine?

The Shaykh: If the rains are falling.

The questioner: ... it is permissible for us to combine the prayers.

The Shaykh: Look, we have two situations: the first situation is what I just said, this is the mosque, we prayed Zuhr and if the rains poured down, we find that the rains are falling; this is the first situation and it is clear and does not need discussion. But suppose the rains fell before the prayer, then stopped, and they are praying Zuhr and there is no rain; then at that time we look at the reality of the ground we are in, for example, not at the falling of rain; because there is no falling now. This is the second situation; if the lands are as they are in many countries today, as if you are walking on a mirror or on... clean; no hindrance to movement, no dirt, or anything; then at that time there is no longer an excuse for combining. But if the situation is as it was in the early period, the time of the Messenger—peace be upon him—then these matters can be estimated and considered a cause for combining the two prayers.
In summary: there are issues that the wise Lawgiver has not specified... such that they are clear in their features to all people; so here, independent legal reasoning and applying thought are necessary, and this falls to the opinion of the imam, as I said earlier; he is the one who determines whether combining is appropriate at that time or not. This is exactly like that, and perhaps more precise, because the issue is relative; combining for the sake of cold, the cold differs among people in terms of being affected by it, little or much. Every person is not the barometer, the measure of heat and cold, such that he determines that if it reaches such a degree, this harms everyone. There is no such precise determination. So who estimates the subject? The imam, and so on.
Yes.

The questioner: Is it obligatory for him to have the intention, the intention to combine, before the prayer?

The Shaykh: It is not obligatory; because the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—when he was combining with the Companions, he did not inform them as some imams do today: "O brothers, we are going to pray combined, so intend in your hearts this combining." There was nothing of this in the time of the Messenger. Rather, he would surprise them with combining from a direction where such combining did not cross their minds. So making the intention a condition from the first prayer of the combining; this has no basis.
Yes.

The questioner : May Allah reward you.